About the Cloudesley Centre
Holy Trinity Church was built in 1827—1829 to the designs of Sir Charles Barry, a young architect at the time, who later went on to design the Houses of Parliament and to achieve international renown.
At the time it cost £11,899 to build, amongst considerable anxiety, and the budget over-ran by £899.
The building was designed in the Tudor Gothic style with stock brick, bath stone dressings and a slate roof and is said to be inspired by King’s College, Cambridge. There are a number of stained-glass windows still in situ, but the finest is the five-light east window designed by the renowned Thomas Willement (1786—1871), depicting Sir Richard Cloudesley, the benefactor of the Cloudesley Charity which gave the land.
Holy Trinity is Grade II* listed and forms the focal point of one of the best-preserved squares in the Barnsbury Conservation Area.
Full chronological report
Full chronology
Dr Rebecca' Preston’s full chronological report on her investigation into Holy Trinity’s site acquisition, works and repair (c. 1811—1980) is available here to download here.
Timeline
Dr Rebecca Preston’s timeline summarising the chronology of site acquisition, works and repairs from (c. 1811—1980) is also available to view on this site.
From 1980 to the present day
When the congregation dwindled in the 1970s the Diocese of London closed the building for Anglican Worship. Between 1980 and 2017 it was leased to the Celestial Church of Christ.
By 2017 the building had deteriorated and was again closed after being declared unsafe for public use. From that time on we have been developing this project and continuing to fundraise for its restoration and re-opening as a community resource to be known as the Cloudesley Centre.
We have also recently secured funding from Historic England and DCMS to undertake emergency works to the building. Repairs to the south and north aisle roofs were carried out in 2020–21 and work started on repairs to the nave ceiling in February 2021.
2020 renovations
This video was kindly recorded by the building contractors during the 2020 renovations to the structure of the North and South aisles.
